[Prompt: "Power Of Faith" has been reset... "Swordsmanship" experience is increasing... +10... +50... +100... +1000.....]
[Current "Swordsmanship": Level 3 (7548/10000) → Level 4 (142/100000)]
[Note: Level 4 (Sword Intent Domain), Prompt... The host can expand the path of the sword through the Nenryoku "Gate of Cognition" combined with "Contemplation Objects"....]
Through borrowing... imitation... then creation...
The [Sword] and the [Sun]... Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni!
As the "Gate of Cognition" flickered, an aged, weathered face brimming with a natural aura of authority quickly constructed itself in Roy's mind. The old face bore numerous scars, its white eyebrows and beard nearly reaching the ground. The elder's half-clouded eyes, honed by the years, narrowed slightly... instantly causing one's breathing to halt and heart to race!
Master Urokodaki Sakonji had once told Roy that the Shallow Strike was merely a practice sword. Once he officially passed the Demon Slayer Corps selection and became a Ghost Hunter, a craftsman from Swordsmith Village would personally deliver a forged sword... However, the master's proposal was gently refused by the young man the first day Roy held the Short Strike.
A sword forged by someone else ultimately contains the will of others, making it impure!
No matter how good, exquisite, or sharp the sword is, with different users, it ultimately fails to achieve— "Human-Sword Unity"!
But the Shallow Strike is different,
It is a "universal" sword; every Shallow Strike is cast from the same mold, featureless yet brimming with features, possessing the potential to expand in an "infinite direction"... Especially when there exists within self-cognition a higher entity as a "mentor"...
Roy gently caressed the blade, his gaze softening, unsealing all his acupoints, transforming the "Nen" within into burning "true intent" to connect with the great sun hanging seemingly endless above the church dome, injecting it all into the Shallow Strike, he softly uttered: "Bankai, Zanka no Tachi!"
"Whoosh~" A wind rushed through the dilapidated church, instantly whisking away all the noise!
The world, at this moment, seemed to have been paused!
Only a sword and a man remained on Meteor Street, West Block, Street No. 4; in the eyes of Bolton, Ilya, Haseki Dorou, the three little Kuroros, and numerous men in black, scavengers, the only existence... light!
Silence! Fire and light were absorbed into the blade, with not a single ember... The Shallow Strike quietly lay in Roy's hand, the blade transitioning from "red" to "black," like an ordinary stick burned to char without igniting, yet still emitting residual "fiery air"...
At a certain moment, a "creak~" rang out...
At the moment of the Shallow Strike's transformation...
Among the many "portals" in Roy's cognitive world, a door engraved with a "prominent-headed corpse demon" trembled as if it sensed something, a crack appearing....
A corner was exposed...
Revealing a small yard, a long corridor, an old man, and a middle-aged one, the two small orange and tanuki complete and calm. Yet... as the aged man sitting cross-legged in the corridor, with a long, grizzled beard and a wooden staff resting in his hands, slowly opened his eyes....
From the slender eyes shot two rays of divine light, startling the orange and tanuki....
Dressed in a high-collared shirt beneath a death tyrant outfit, with white hair and silver detailing, in a Western style, Sasakibe Chōjirō paused in tending to the two potted green plants before him, turned around and gazed back....
"What's the matter, Heizansai?" (Note: "Heizansai" is "Genryūsai," a private term used by Vice-captain Sasakibe Chōjirō of the first division to refer to Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, with the cross scar on the old man's forehead being a remnant from their past rivalry.)
The old man remained silent, extending a withered hand to his heart, feeling the heart that continued to beat steadily despite enduring over two millennia, which abruptly jumped... Amidst Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's contemplation, he looked up at the great sun hanging high in the sky, slowly saying: "Chōjirō, my heart is disturbed."
Sasakibe Chōjirō's dashing little mustache twitched in surprise: "Are you still worried about Kyōraku and Ukitake?"
Kyōraku was leisurely, Ukitake frail... Indeed the two were not ideal successors for inheritance. Following Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni for over two millennia, how could Sasakibe Chōjirō not understand the concerns of Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, continuing to water the plants as he advised: "The thirteenth division is full of talent, no shortage of talented people. If you are truly bored..."
"Taking on another disciple to pass the time is also no harm..."
As for... whether one could inherit the position of captain or even the complete legacy of close friendships... Sasakibe Chōjirō did not even want to think of it... because... it's too difficult!
It can be frankly said, Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni is like the sun, and it's under his glory that the present stable Seireitei exists!
Therefore... how could the world find a second sun for him?
"Taking on another?" The old man touched his chest, falling into deep thought....
The heartbeat that accelerated for no reason indeed occurred... accompanied by the "creak~," the crack that appeared closed again...
The gate engraved with the "corpse demon" locked shut....
Hunter World, Meteor Street.
Immersed in the "Bankai," Roy listened as the Short Strike conveyed its "excitement," "joy," "impatience," "itching to try"… telling him it wanted to showcase its new power to him....
Dressed as a priest, Roy moved the hand holding the Shallow Strike, causing the sun pendant on his chest to swing, unexpectedly executing a simple horizontal slash.
"Zanka no Tachi, Higashi: Kyokujitsujin!"
An unremarkable thin line swept across... as Bolton's fists touched and primed another "explosion," then Ilya activated her own Nenryoku— "Vector Manipulation," releasing a "Vector Arrow," triggering the "explosion," delivering it right before Roy...